Bayi win second title, Wuhan take women's crown in Chinese table tennis league

Bayi claimed their second men's title in China's Table Tennis Super League (CTTSL) while Wuhan Anxin took the women's crown here on Saturday.

Bayi defeated underdogs Bazhou Hairun 3-1 while Wuhan lifted their first CTTSL trophy after overcoming Shandong Luneng 3-1 in women's final.

Bayi stopped Bazhou's surprising run as the latter eliminated regular season leaders Shandong Weiqiao to advance into the final.

Bayi's Fan Zhendong came back from two games down to beat the 16-year-old Wang Chuqin 3-2 before he crushed Liang Jingkun 3-0. Zhou Yu and Xu Chenhao earned a point for Bayi in the doubles

Liang Jingkun gave Bazhou the only point when he eased past Xu Chenhao 3-0 in the opening match.

"It's a tough win, which has boosted my confidence a lot. We are a young team, hopefully all of us can have a bright future," said Fan.

In the women's final, Liu Shiwen sent Wuhan to a good start with a 3-1 victory over Gu Ruochen in the opening match before beating Zhu Yuling 3-0 in the fourth singles match. Liu Gaoyang and Feng Yalan nailed the doubles win.

However, it is Zhu that put on the most impressive show of the night when she was forced to receive medical attention for her left ankle trailing at 2-0 against Feng Yalan and returned to claw back three games.

"I'm happy about the win. I want to thank my club for their support throughout the season. Even when I was mentally down, they were still on my side," said Liu, who joined Wuhan before the season.

"I know that they all cried after finishing second last season, so I just don't want them to cry once more,"she joked.

"It's normal for a player to get injured in the match. Hopefully I can get well soon and prepare for nexr year's tournaments,"said Zhu. Endit